Gunman gets six years for killing best friend’s stepfather
Rudu Isaiah “Rudy” Pardo has no criminal record, has apologized and deserves sympathy, his attorney told the Bexar County jury that convicted him of murder for killing his best friend’s stepfather.
Jurors took just over two hours Thursday to sentence Pardo, 27, to six years in prison, one year more than the minimum term for the first-degree felony.
The jury had taken more than four hours to find him guilty Wednesday in the fatal shooting of Kevin Osborne, 53, during a confrontation between Osborne and his stepson, Pardo’s friend.
Pardo had faced five to 99 years or life in prison.
He and his friend, Orion Herrera, both brought loaded handguns to a house on the West Side where Osborne had gone to seek his mother-inlaw’s help in patching up a fight with his wife early on Feb. 19, 2023.
Herrera and Osborne got into a chest-bumping confrontation in the driveway and Pardo intervened. Pardo testified Osborne punched him, that he pushed Osborne and fired one shot in selfdefense when Osborne kept advancing.
Herrera testified with much the same story — except for the punching part. Osborne was aggressive and made verbal threats but was unarmed, he said.
No punches were visible in video taken of the incident from surveillance cameras across the street at Memorial High School.
Osborne’s relatives were silent as visiting Senior State District Judge Lisa Jarrett, presiding by assignment, read the jury’s sentence.
“We lost a beloved family member and pillar of the community,” Ernest Osborne said of his brother, a professional photographer and owner of a business, Blackdolphin Kjo.
Kevin Osborne was a fixture at the Cadenareeves Justice Center, took selfies with many of the judges and lawyers and often sat in on criminal trials because of his interest in the law. He sometimes took campaign photos of judges, and state District Judge Stephanie Boyd, whose court was assigned the case, recused herself because he had taken pictures of her and she considered him a friend.
“So many people loved Kevin. He had an infectious smile that filled a room,” Ernest Osborne said.
He told Pardo he felt bad for him, that Kevin Osborne’s then-wife “was irresponsible” and put Pardo in danger by drawing him and Herrera into the night’s dispute.
“You didn’t need to be there,” he told Pardo.
Two of the victim’s nephews gave statements that also put blame on his wife, Kris Herrera, who they said told lies about her husband and should have been charged along with Pardo.
Orion Herrera testified that his mother called and instructed him to call her mother, Manuella Monsivais, and tell her to not let Osborne in her house.
He told the jury he tried unsuccessfully to get a 911 dispatcher to send San Antonio police to see if he was there, so he enlisted Pardo, and they both took their guns.
Pardo testified that he suffered from psoriasis on 90% of his body and Osborne’s punches caused immense pain.
“I was trying to shoot in the abdomen or lower leg, higher leg,” he testified Wednesday through tears. “I didn’t want the worst to happen.”
Using an overhead projector, defense attorney Anton Hajek III showed the jury a hand-drawn chart that listed the number 5 with a dotted line to 99/life. Underneath five years, he wrote the word “sympathy.” Toward the top range he wrote “rehabilitation.”
“I ask that you be sympathetic,” Hajek told the panel before they deliberated the sentence.
In his closing argument, prosecutor Jason Garrahan told the jury that sentencing Pardo to the minimum “would be highly inappropriate.”
“I am not going to compare him to an ax murderer,” Garrahan told the panel. “That’s 99 years or life. But he took away Kevin Osborne that day from his family.”
Garrahan pointed out that Pardo and his friends carried guns without ever taking courses to learn to use them properly and to educate themselves on what constitutes self-defense.
“These are the people walking around to choose who lives or dies,” Garrahan told the jury. “Rudy Pardo is that individual, just like his friends, walking around with guns, not knowing the law. It’s dangerous.”
Pardo will have to serve at least three years before he is eligible for parole.
He received credit for time served in the Bexar County jail.